Yesterday being Friday, Mum decided we would do a couple of different things - just to be different, I suppose. :) The first thing, she said, would be a 'free-write' where each of us writes on the same topic, but interprets it in our own way. The topic was "The Perfect Day". James had to write for ten minutes; Elise on up had to write for fifteen minutes. The result was rather interesting. Jess wrote a story set in the war about a girl who finally got her perfect day. I wrote a poem about things I like to do, but it isn't exactly realistic. The younger four all outlined what would happen to make their days perfect. This was interesting in itself as they all differed quite a bit. Grace's perfect day included cleaning the pergola and pealing potatoes - activities she hates - simply because what she does like is to keep busy and have things to do. In Joy's perfect day, the dishes magically did themselves and we had a great day with lots of dear friends. Elise's perfect day started with horse riding all morning, and James' perfect day was to play different sports all day at the park.
After we had read our papers aloud, we played a maths game that I haven't played in years. We have heaps of maths flash cards with simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems printed on them. (Elise and I sorted them into their respective piles before we began writing.) The rules of the game are: you set a timer for a minute. Mum holds up the flash cards and you answer as many of them as you can before the timer goes off, but if you get one wrong, you start again but the timer keeps ticking.
Some people found this a little bit stressful, but it was good fun. We started with division. Grace absolutely blitzed that section, answering fifty problems in a minute. We then did multiplication, but I can't remember who won that one! :) At the end of each section, Mum subtracted our age from twenty and added it to our score (So I got two extra points, Jess got 3, Grace got 5, Joy got 7, Elise got 9, and James got 11) It even us up a little bit. :) I think the overall winner was still Grace, but no one could beat her fifty she got on division.
When we had finished that, Mum took Jess through to James to swimming lessons and I stayed to mind Rose and Annie. Annie hasn't been too well lately, so she sat in the lounge room and watched DVDs (or as she calls them "DDDs"!) Rose and I went to the kitchen because I had promised to show her how to make bread. We make a loaf of bread and some rolls for lunch. You should have heard her squeal with excitement when she realized that the dough was growing!
So that was my different day day. I got next to no 'school work' done, but I did writing, maths, child minding, bread making, home economics - they don't teach you half that stuff at school! :)
Here's the poem I wrote; I'm sure all of you could relate to at least parts of it! :)
Waking up one morning,
I heard the rain on the roof
And the window, just above my head.
My heart started soaring
Til it was far and aloof,
For these are my favourite days.
I started with reading
Sitting up in my bed.
Then I went and made pancakes to eat
With dishes succeeding.
Then I went back and read -
Oh these are my favourite days!
With the rain still coming,
I went and I baked
Bread and and cookies and scones.
All the while I was humming,
Over slices and cake
For these are my favourite days.
After lunch I examined,
The patterns I like
And sewed the whole afternoon through,
A quilt - mint and lemon -
Then dinner (not pike!)
Oh these are my favourite days!
Disclaimer: I couldn't come up with anything to rhyme with 'like' that would fit, so I just put 'pike' in to clarify that my favorite days do not include seafood! :P
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